PS3 - EUROPEAN PRICE CONFIRMATION
Sources close to Sony have all but confirmed that the various launch prices for the PS3 in Europe will be as follows:
Ireland - €629 (60GB)
Europe - €499 (20GB) / €599 (60GB)
UK - £425 (60GB)
So, why the difference in prices?
Ireland is an extra €20 compared to Europe due to their VAT rates being higher, at 21%. We weren’t given any real reason to why the UK price is £30 more than that of Europe …erm, other than the cost of living is greater in the UK and retailers won’t budge from their inflated mark-up!
Take a look at the following link for some further info: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=22289.
Also, you may have heard that Sir Howard Stringer, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sony Corporation, was quoted as saying the launch was going to be in April. We can confirm that this was a mistake and that everything is still being lined up for the March 23 launch date!
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Will the 20GB-Model be available at launch in Europe? Because there is no price for it for UK and Ireland.
Comment by Andreas — January 17, 2007 @ 4:22 pm
Those prices are too high. Really. Poor Ireland is forced to pay €629 (equivalent to €520 ex vat) which translates to $817 ($676 ex vat). Meaning the exact same console costs Europeans a whole 76 dollars more than Americans even before tax. And more again than the Japanese. I’m sorry to say that really is daylight robbery. I sure hope retailers have latitude with their pricing because these things are going to sit on shelves otherwise.
Comment by DrXym — January 17, 2007 @ 4:22 pm
The 599 price for Europe is too high (it’s surely a risk for you, Sony). According to me, the right solution would be cancel the 20Gb version, and sell only the 60Gb version at 499. However, for a 599 price, i really hope there will be (at least) a game and a blu-ray film bundled with the console.
Comment by Wildy — January 17, 2007 @ 4:45 pm
Some European VAT rates copied from eurogamer comments:
Austria 20%
Belgium 21%
Denmark 25%
Finland 22%
Hungary 20%
Italy 20%
Poland 22%
Portugal 21%
Slovenia 20%
Sweden 25%
Comment by norad — January 17, 2007 @ 5:17 pm
My bet is that Sony decided to hike the price in the ROI to stop daytrippers coming down from NI or across on the ferry and snapping it up for much less than it costs in the UK. However the ROI also has a recycling tax on electrical goods to consider. I wonder if that is included in the 629. My bet is that it won’t be if Sony can get away with it. Which means another 5-15 on top for the consumer.
Comment by DrXym — January 17, 2007 @ 5:24 pm
what kind of daft price is 425 quid??? why not make it nice an round (like most electronics) and make it 399.99? it looks a lot better then 425 as well to be honest…whats the extra 25 quid for???
Comment by seedaripper — January 17, 2007 @ 5:31 pm
Wait… is this official confirmation or just a rumour? Typical rip off Britain, as usual paying more than everyone else. I was at least hopeing for a £399 launch price but… meh I’ll wait till the official announcement next week.
Comment by Tom Eccles — January 17, 2007 @ 5:31 pm
That is a tit, £425? $599US is the equivalent of about £300 at the current exchange rate! We are paying $250US more for it! Oh well, can’t wait till march.
My only worry is that there will be a shortage at launch, Amazon aren’t taking any orders at the moment…
Comment by DPR — January 17, 2007 @ 5:50 pm
This is ludicrous. To all Americans that translates as $836.00.
Who are Sony trying to appeal to here.
Comment by Ben Furneaux — January 17, 2007 @ 5:51 pm
“to be honest…whats the extra 25 quid for???”
‘casino royale’ on blu-ray?
Comment by geordie — January 17, 2007 @ 5:56 pm
To people converting in $ and comparing to the official US prices:
European prices INCLUDE taxes. It’s still more expensive for no valid reason though.
Comment by seb — January 17, 2007 @ 5:59 pm
Then you have to add on the price of the HDTV cables that don;t come with it (last I heard) and of course a game, cuase it is a gaming console (isn’t it?).
So the actual cost in the UK will be over £500….
Comment by shinesevens — January 17, 2007 @ 6:06 pm
not to forget that alot of stores will prob. add a bit to the price, just because they can
Comment by Akisame — January 17, 2007 @ 6:30 pm
If “retailers won’t budge from their inflated mark-up!” then maybe we will see the king of price cut such as Tesco sell for what Sony intended?
If not why not sell direct to the public, online? I don’t see why not in this day and age *grin*
I have no probs with the price being £425 - its what has been suspected all along.
It’s 130 quid more than what I paid for my 360, but it’s totally worth it - it has a blu ray drive built in (hdvd is an extra £140 or so for the 360), it’s a linux able computer (360 can’t do that at all) and free online (£40 for the 360). Plus all the other bits like motion censor joypads etc.
So imo its totally worth it. And I can’t wait!
I can’t wait!
Comment by Timeless — January 17, 2007 @ 11:48 pm
The price is a major issue IMO. For the last 4 years we have been having a “PlayStation night” every Thursday. On any one night there could be 9 of us on 3 PS2’s gambling on Tiger Woods (10 bucks a round, potential 80 quid win!) From the group of us only 2 went out and bought a 360 last year, but since the PS3 price announcement and that it would be more expensive in Europe 3 others broke rank and bought 360’s also. I think that the fact the PS3 will be more expensive again in the ROI will be the final slap in their faces and finally push the few others sitting on the fence over to the 360 side. The funny thing is all these lads have done for the last three years is say “can’t wait to get my hands on a PS3!” yet only I and 1 other will definitely be buying a PS3. I’m sure Sony has produced a great machine but they are doing something wrong in losing these customers to inferior spec consoles like the 360 or Wii. It’s looking like thursdays for the next few years will be renamed “360 night” instead. What a pity.
Comment by Prunchess — January 18, 2007 @ 2:04 am
I love Sony video game consoles, I love the vision of video games from Sony, an adult vision.
I have a PS2, and this is the perfect balancing between pricing and choice.
At the beginning of 2005, I buy the PSP system for this kind of promise : good balancing between pricing and choice.
It was a mistake.
Now the Sony PS3 is coming. Is it like the PS2, lot’s of great games, good pricing ? or like the psp ?
Don’t know, but 600 euros for a video game console and 70 euros for a game is definitively not for me
This is, for me, the second pricing error from Sony, the first was the EU pricing of PSP’s games, two perfect example of “none for everybody pricing”.
Comment by Fantomas — January 18, 2007 @ 11:13 am
Not only is the price ridiculously high, but the system has no real interesting games on it yet! I’ll buy mine when GT5 and FFXIII come out - roughly another year or so - by which the system will probably have dropped a bit. And i’ll buy mine in France, or even have it imported from the US. F$%k this stupid European and especially UK higher price business. The system has been delayed for Europe, and on top of that, it is more expensive ?! I’m sick and tired of Sony always neglecting its European customers. Actually f$%k Sony, I won’t buy one.
Comment by Me — January 18, 2007 @ 12:22 pm
hahaha… don’t cry about the price in england and ireland… in switzerland the vat is only 7.6% and the ps3 will be as expensive as in ireland the only real reason i see is … well none at the moment…. :/
Comment by aldebahran — January 18, 2007 @ 2:53 pm
Paying £425 for a PLAYSTATION 3 is like paying £35,000 for a MINI Cooper S.
Comment by Kabelo Segwai — January 18, 2007 @ 3:05 pm
Erm, does 25 quid really make that much difference?
Comment by Belfast Steps — January 18, 2007 @ 3:08 pm
Paying £425 for a PLAYSTATION 3 is like paying £35,000 for a MINI Cooper S. Totally ridiculous.
No matter what John Cooper Works and your local Halfords have done to it, its still a friggin’ MINI Cooper S.
This price point shows a company so completely out of touch it fucking embarrasing.
By the way, Sony will blame the retailers for the high price and ebay scalpers when it stops selling after the third week.
And before the Sony Sychophants start talking shit about ” yeah, but its real value for money, look at what you get!”
If all you are lookng for is a top notch games machine(90% of Playstation owners), there is no value to be found here.
There is however much taking of the piss!
Comment by Kabelo Segwai — January 18, 2007 @ 3:32 pm
Why is the PS3 so much cheaper in Japan? I think the price was around €340 for the 60GB model. Sony can’t blame it all on taxes.
Comment by Andreas — January 18, 2007 @ 3:38 pm
The reason the Japanese model is so cheap apart from taxation is that the Japanese consumers made it known that they wouldnt pay the previously announced price.
Its just a shame that SCEE hasnt listened to consumers for nearly 5 years.
Comment by Kabelo Segwai — January 18, 2007 @ 3:56 pm
What pisses me off most of all though, is that knowing all this, Sony will still be laughin’(at me at least) cos as a gadget freak and Playstation fanboy(not a sychophant;I recognise and call out when Sony fuck up) its still a sweet piece of hardware and at some point(normally a launch day man, now not so sure) I will be picking one up.
Comment by Kabelo Segwai — January 18, 2007 @ 4:05 pm
£30 more if you live in the UK !!! YER I DON’T THINK SO,I will leave this to the film buffs which it seems with it’s drive and price will properly appeal to the most…………
Comment by Daev Dones — January 18, 2007 @ 7:26 pm
Isn’t this more than the E3 announced price? Anyone know why it has gone up?
Comment by Dude — January 20, 2007 @ 5:58 pm
how am i gonna afford ps3 at 425 . im probably better off buying 360
Comment by TONY — January 22, 2007 @ 10:53 pm
Im sick of hearing people cry about the PS3 price. If you want to pay less and get half of a next gen console, go buy an xbox 360.
£425 is an absolute bargain for a blu-ray player.
And cheap for a pretty well feaured linux PC.
And before you all think ‘But I don’t want a blu-ray player’ slap yourselves for being so short sighted.
Next-gen (or is it current now?) Consoles have more memory, texture sizes are fantastically larger, more and more games are shipping with 5.1 sound. Yet they have to fit all of this onto the same size media as a first gen xbox? That can only lead to smaller games. The PS3 on the other hand has no such limitation.
Eventually Microsoft will of course, do a trademark U-turn, and allow HD-DVD media for games. Thereby ripping off all of the early adopters who will have to splash out for an updated console, or possibly the external drive.
Comment by Kev51773 — January 23, 2007 @ 12:56 pm